The Chimes from Away
by PaperBows
Summary: "Itachi, come here will you, and hug your mother". A few days before the massacre, when everyone's attention is away, Mikoto dedicates a moment for Itachi for what seems like the last time before letting him go away.


**Summary :** A few days before the massacre, when everyone's attention is away, Mikoto dedicates a moment for Itachi for what seems like the last time before letting him go away.

My first fic, and first real attempt at a story ever. I'm a little -read a hell lot- nervous about that. I always thought it would be between Itachi and Sasuke but it turned out to be Mikoto and Itachi, figures.

**Warnings :** None really. There is nothing that should be shocking anyone -no matter how much I wanted to put yaoi in there .-, not even one pairing, just a little angst. Oh, should I mention that Itachi is not going to be some evil bastard ? That counts as a warning ? No ? ... fine.

**Disclaimer :** I don't own any character. What ? You didn't notice ? Someone saw me while I was preventing Itachi from dying ?

Tell me what you think please ? Every comment is very much welcomed. Enjoy, and thank you for reading.

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Itachi's arms were limply laced around her neck while she prevented him to fall backwards with her own lithe limbs gripping the fabric of his top, and as Itachi's calf barely meet her knees, Mikoto had to concead that the air never felt so light around her, and for the first time in an amount of time she couldn't think of anymore, Itachi felt like her baby again. She is sure that if she decided to stand from that spot on the floor and hold him tight, she would be able to carry him everywhere, elsewhere, it would be easy because Itachi surely wouldn't weight much in her arms, she would like to do just that.  
But for now, she moves him forward and presses a kiss on the tip of his nose and surely Itachi closes his eyes and smiles, biting his lower lip as if he wanted to laugh.

-"Mother" and for a while the word felt foreign on his tongue, but it soon passes.  
-"I think I sprained my wrist, do you think you could ... ?" He didn't have time to finish his sentence, as he felt Mikoto softly blowing on the darkening skin.

The pain didn't go away but that didn't matter, with that line that seemed directly taken from a kid's movie Mikoto couldn't help but smile at the incredibly refreshing prospect of Itachi seeing one, even in a flicker. As for Itachi in the end he received a cuddle from his mother and it felt nice.

-"Thank you mother" That felt nice too.

But that didn t prevent their hearts from feeling heavy, and that beginning of a scar poking out of Itachi s collar seemed more prominent now, along with the feeling of frozen at the contact of his skin.

She recalls well a few days before, Itachi coming home, hollow, his eyes supressing something awful. She put some dangos on his bedside table the next morning.

What was left of Mikoto and Itachi now? What could be said after that decade of slow and silent detachment ?

They shared two things, those might have had different colors and intensity but they definitely existed : their hair and their love for Sasuke.

But when they will part, Mikoto wants to make sure that Itachi could say to whomever was concerned that his mother and he shared a third special something. That he had once a scratch and fortunately, she was here to make the pain go away without even so much as touching it and everything was fine then.

She knows he will not, but deems it important for him to know that he once had someone like that in his life.

She know Itachi's wounds are deeper, some of them unreachable, some inflicted by himself and some existed to taunt her for not preventing them, she can't heal any of those, but she can heal the shallow wounds with shallow words and shallow gestures, and today Itachi seemed to feel better, she is not sure what happened but does that matter anyways ? What is important remains that she was able to do it.

Sasuke will wake up soon.

Sasuke whom she loves with all her heart and soul. She wonders if Itachi loves him more, dismisses the question and then wonders again if Sasuke loves Itachi more than her. Itachi didn't choose to have Sasuke as a little brother, she choose to have him as a son. But what does that knowledge provide her? Is it any easier to love someone you chose ? Itachi's love is tireless and fierce, selfless and beyond motherly and she isn't sure to understand what exactly is driving him.

For her Sasuke always felt more like a son, Itachi seemed to belong to something else.

When did Itachi felt like hers for the last time ? When he was in a cradle, when he couldn't walk without her arms around his body, when he wouldn't have survived without her breast to nourish him.

But then he was able to crawl and soon enough he could walk and he seemed to fade away from her with his feelings, when he fell, he didn't wait for her to get him up.  
What is he craving now ? The knowledge of his little brother's happiness and well being ? His love ? Where is she standing in his heart ?  
Itachi is not one to blame her just as she never blamed or hated Itachi, but that knowledge does not give any consolation in any way, with the necessity of loving Sasuke they neglected to love each other in the meanwhile. Not exactly, Itachi's neglect must have been the result of her own.

What could have she done otherwise ?

Her finger traces a line across his chest and all along she can feel that heart of his druming, fighting with all its might to be released so she settles her hand above and holds it in place.

At one moment she was afraid that Itachi's decisions would harm his little brother, conveniently siding alongside with Fugaku.  
Itachi changed one day out of the blue but it would be lying to say that she hadn't seen it coming.

She wonders too if she could have made things easier by hating him, he then would have a reason to harm her. In the end circumstances and reality wanted it that way, and took Itachi in the process.

Her Itachi.

Her strenghth his so limited now, nonexistent even, all she can do is try to make things easier for him, it is so late, and that feeling of uselessness is hurting so much.

He grew in her womb, hurting his mother in the process of being pulled out of her, and that makes him precious. He is a part of her.

Sasuke will be fine.

Itachi is someone on whose hands she can put Sasuke's life, he will suffer and it breaks her heart but at least she knows he will be fine.  
There is no one in the world she can trust more or other than Itachi at this moment, she never felt so close to him.

Something awful is hovering over them, and Mikoto isn't sure what her input could be. For now, holding her elder son seems important because she doesn't know if someone would hold him like that again in the future.  
Soon, he will stand and force his legs not to break under the pressure on his shoulders, and he will walk and run and collide into people who will grab him and take him for their own.  
Soon, Itachi's flesh will rip apart and she won't be there to sew him back.

But maybe one day ...

When he is safe and secure, Sasuke could take care of Itachi too.  
He shudders and stirs and she holds him even tighter, combing the hair at the back of his head with her fingers.  
Itachi stills.  
He is ...

-"Itachi, you are beautiful" she says and her heart is heavy and weeping.  
And where you'll go, they would't be able to do otherwise than to love you, she wants to add.  
Itachi raises his eyes to her and his lashes flutters across his cheeks, just like his mother's.  
-"Mother, I could never make it up to you" he says.  
"But please I wish to remain here for awhile" he adds.

Mikoto raises and she puts hers arms under her son's calf and his armpits, she takes him with her, she won't let go for awhile.


End file.
